Broken Mirror 3:City of Stone
by Tribun
Summary: 5 to 6 in my saga. Demona turns the entire city to stone, and will start events with that, which will cause further events. While Elisa is shown the hard way, how ruthless Demona is.
1. A city turns to stone

Episode #5-6

Notes:  
**-For the sake of my story I have re-arranged the chonology of the episodes. "The Mirror", "City of Stone" and "High Noon" now take place after "The Price" in this order. Also the events of the latter two episodes will obviously change. This is extemly important! **  
-In case you wonder. I left out all flashbacks, and some other scens I not thought of as substantial.  
Despite what it may look like on first glance, this is NOT a simple copy and paste job from the script.  
-I have no clue of the exact English quotes, so I simply translated the quotes from the German translated episodes.

_Previously on Gargoyles: _

Demona: "The humans are our enemies, Goliath!"

**-The Awenkening, Part I**

_  
MacBeth: "I'm called MacBeth. I want your Queen."  
Goliath: "Queen? We don't have a queen."  
MacBeth: "So? And what about Demona?"  
Goliath: "You know Demona?"  
MacBeth: "Know her? Ha ha! I NAMED her."  
**  
-Enter MacBeth**  
_

_  
Demona (thinking): "Well, in a week I will have much fun, so I shouldn't complain." _

**-Afterschocks, Part III  
**

_**Broken Mirror**_

**City of Stone, Part I**

_by Tribun_

The night was late over New York. Soon it would be dawn. And after the hostage situation in the bank, the clan was glad that dawn would be within half a hour. Especially the reactions from the hostages weren't that well in their memory, and they would liked for the night to be over sooner than later.

"I tell you, she thought that I was the devil! No 'Thank you!' Just the usual 'Don't come near me!'. I tell you Broadway, the Dragon had cursed me with my appearance. Why the heck have I just to look almost like the Devil?" Brooklyn ranted while wolfing down a sandwich.

"It could have been worse. At least none of them started to plead to God to send you back to hell." Broadway knew what he was talking about. In the middle ages, Brooklyn had been the target of these religious fears several times.

"At least you weren't called a green goblin!" Lex looked up from his programming of the Coldstone program. "I tell you, I really hate this comic villian, and being compared to him!"

"At least you don't have the burden, Goliath is carrying." Broadway whispered, not to remind their leader who was sitting with Elisa at the other end of the room, of the incident. "Remember the little boy who called him Barney?"

Brooklyn had to really restrain himself not to laugh. Despite his burden, he still was able to laugh over someone else's "nickname". That Goliath was compared by a child with a stupid creature from children TV was actually very funny.

On the other end of the room, Goliath was busy to finish a bandage on Elisa's left hand. A week had been not enough to really teach her the finer points of gliding, but she now had mastered the basics of it, and not longer needed his help for just gliding. But manouvers were still very difficult for her. But fighting gargoyle style was obviously still alien for her, since she had no done very well in the bank, resulting in her getting a hand injury.

"Ow! You know Goliath, I still have problems with the concept of simply cimbing up walls with my bare hands. And that despite the strong talons, my palm is still very suspictible to injury." Elisa said while waiting for Goliath to finish.

"We are all mortal. Despite all our strngth, a simple knife could kill us." Goliath knew what he talked about. One of his brothers had been killed by a dagger in the dark ages. "But I'm proud of you, that you have mastered gliding so fast, and you managed to defeat one of the criminals today."

"But nothing compared to how well you fought." Elisa said.

"I have years of training. You still need to get used to your new body. But you have still done well." remarked whle fastening the bandage.

Hudson tried not to grin while he turned off the TV. These two were flirting. He had seen many start this way, and over time it became more. But he would not tell anything. He would merely wait for them to explore this territory by themselves and discover it's wonders.

_Ah, young love... I wish my mate would be here to see it. But it was not to be..._ he mused, still the sadness came, when he thought about his aquamarine angel.

What made him more worry were these three magical beings they had encountered there. What had they wanted to tell them with these words? Why had these children of Oberon decided to talk to them? He had no idea, but it already smelled like trouble.

Children of Oberon were always trouble. Puck had proven this to the best.

_...Pack Media studios..._

Demona prepared herself for chanting the spell. She had promised Xanatos, that it would grant him immortality, and he had swallowed the bait at once. Of course Xanatos and Burnett would be in for a ugly surprise. Xanatos himself was not there anymore, but this was of no consequence.

_This will be finally fighting on even terms. If we turn to stone during the day..._ Demona then noticed Owen giving her a sign.

Xanatos' secretary was behind the camera, waiting for her to speak, thinking it would grant Xanatos immortality. But he and all others in the city would get MUCH more.

"Begin, Demona." Owen just told her in his dry voice.

"Very well..." she grinned, then started to read from the page. _"Omnes conspecti, omnes auditi in nocte usque ad saxum commutate dum caelum ardeat!"_

Owen's eyes went wide when he understood that they were duped by Demona. "Stop! This isn't the spell you promised!"

But before he could do something, Demona hit him with lightning bolts, paralyzing him. Quick she tied him with a cable to a chair. "You are too clever for not to take caution!" Activating the playback, she saw the the spell was recorded perfect. _Good, now I just have to wait until next night, then the fun will start._

Demona left Owen alone. He cursed in his mind. _Damn! Demona only makes trouble. And again a spell that will cause havoc on the city! Queen Titania won't find it funny if the spell also hits her daughter!_ Owen slowly came out of the paralyse, but to actually get free, he would need hours.

The trickser had been tricked.

_...in front of a electronics store..._

_"Omnes conspecti, omnes auditi in..."_ The spectators wondered who this strange woman in TV was, who chanted these words again and again, but three nearly identical woman actually had waited for this to happen.

"Isn't that exciting Luna? It starts again!" the blond one told her black and silver haired sisters.

"Hold back sisters, otherwise we will stand out." the black haired told her while they walked away.

"Luna, Seline, have patience. We have waited 975 years, so we can wait a little more." the silver haired said.

Walking to the park, they started to talk more freely. "Still I wonder if what we intend to do will break the rule. You know, it could have ugly consequences for us." Phoebe, the black haired said while they walked by the resvoir.

"As the archmage had said, the rule can be bent. What interests me more at the moment is the doing of Puck. You know, the female creature smells of his magic, it is not her natural form. He had permanently changed her." Seline said while sitting at the edge of the lake shore.

"But at the moment we have more pressing objectives." Luna said while joing her sisters at the shore. "We can still still see if we actually can gain something of it later. For now we need the bring the Archmage what he needs to drive our enemies off Avalon."

_...23rd precinct, 10 minutes to sunset..._

Matt had no idea why, but nearly everyone in the squad room was complaining about the strange TV program today. Matt himself could not say why, because his TV was broken, and it would be still days until he would get a new one.

"Bluestone, in my office at once!" Chavez shouted. As soon as he was in, she locked the door and indicated to a portable TV. What Matt saw, made him stop.

On the screen was a blue skinned gargess, chaning the same words again and again. Matt had no doubt, that despite never meeting her, this was Demona, the psychopatic gargess.

"Is this the gargoyle psycho who is on all TV channels in New York?" Chavez asked. When Matt nodded, she added: "Go upstairs and tell them. Regardless what she plans, it can't be good considering all what was told me about her."

Matt not needed anymore encouragement, and started to jog to the upper stories to reach the ladder to the clocktower.

_...Eerie building..._

Xanatos looked to his pilot Bruno while the helicopter took off. Fox had wanted to fly the copter but Xanatos had forbidden it, and ordered the trusted leader of his commando team to do the piloting.

"Hey boss, I bet Demona won't have much chance in Hollywood with this performance. Very lame stuff." Bruno told him while turning the machine into the right direction.

"You saw it?" Xanatos asked.

"I was curious. Well, she..."

"Wait a moment, the phone is ringing." Xanatos interrupted him, then pressed a button to put the telephone on his headphones. "Xanatos here!"

"Sir! Demona duped us!" Owen was on the other side of the line. "Her spell will cause..." suddenly the line went dead.

"Owen?...OWEN? What...?.. ?" Xanatos felt the helicopter loosing attitude, and when he looked over, Bruno had turned to stone! "Oh no!" Switching control, he grabbed his own flightstick, to get the helicopter to land safe on the street. Finally he had landed. Looking to Bruno, he wondered how this could have happened, then he looked over the street.

Everyone was turned to stone! Men, woman children, even some animals! Finally Xanatos became aware what Demona had done. Picking up his weapon, he made his way back to the studio. Demona would pay for this betrayal. But more pressing was how to rescue the city now. Even Xanatos knew, the curse had to be broken. Even he wanted to free them of this spell.

"Well, I think there is no way to get a taxi right now..." he mused while continuing his way to the Pack Media studios.

_...the clocktower..._

Sunset had brought the clan back to life. Stretching themselves, they greeted the new night. Hudson had promised them to introduce them to his friend Jeffrey Robbins tonight, but first they wanted to see if any news had happened, that needed their attention.

There was a montionless shadow on the stairs, they knew this silluette. "Hey Matt, have we scared you so much that you not wanted to move anymore?" Elisa teased. No reply.

"Matt...?" walking over to the stairs, the froze when they saw it. There was a stone statue of Matt Bluestone on the stairs, looking as if he was just literally running up the stairs and frozen in the motion. As if Matt Bluestone had just turned to stone.

"I must say I'm confused... Who would send us a statue of our frien'? An' in such a strange position...?" Hudson asked himself while looking at the statue. It looked too perfect, even a piece of paper stuck out of his coat pocket.

"Guys...it is so quiet outside!" Broadway said while he was still at the door to the balcony. "As if the whole city had fallen asleep... Almost like a graveyard."

"Like a graveyard..." Elisa then raced down the stairs.

"Elisa wait! You can't walk down there!" Goliath called after her, but she not listened, and they had to follow her. Walking through the corridors of the precinct was strange, and it was here quiet too. Deathly quiet.

Storming into the squad room, Elisa stopped dead. The whole squad room had turned to stone. All of them frozen just in the task they were doing. "Oh God...no. This can't be possible! This can't be happening!"

She looked at the statue of Officer Morgan, he was just pouring himself a coffee. Even the coffee was frozen together with him. Or Officer Johnson, just getting up from his chair. It was a bizzare view.

The clan simply was shocked. All humans had turned to stone. Then there was a noise from the office of the captain. Walking into the office, they saw captain Chavez turned to stone in her chair, looking on a portable TV. And on air was Demona, chanting something!

"Quick, turn it off!" Goliath shouted when he recognised it as latin she was chanting. Brooklyn wasted no time and simply smashed the TV.

"Sorry Captain..." Elisa told the statue of Chavez. Looking at her, Elisa had no doubt that it was her. "I would have never guessed, that Demona could have such power... what if this had happened to the whole city?"

"I think we will find out soon..." Lex said and walked to the front door with the clan in tow. On the street was the same situation. All people were turned to stone. Demona had managed to make them all turn to stone. The clan was quite shocked that she had managed such a thing.

"She HAS turned the whole city to stone!" Brookly said in awe. He had witnessed Demona doing magic, but this was a completely new level. He suddenly felt really helpless.

"I had no idea that she has so much power..." Goliath was also awed.

Elisa looked to Hudson "Look for a telephone and tell Robbins that we can't come and that he should stay inside... It will be a hard night."

Brooklyn on the other hand, went to Goliath. "Goliath, how are wo going to find Demona? She could be everywhere!"

"I fear her trail will be too clear..." Goliath had no illusion, what Demona would do. Elisa paled. She knew that Demona will kill in her hate. And no one would stop her now from murdering her helpless victims.

Goliath continued "Broadway, get Bronx, we need to find the last place of her crimes, and then let him pick up the trail!"

_...in a other part of Manhattan..._

"Ha ha ha! That is really fun!" Demona laughed while she smashed a man with her mace. She had smashed in the short time nearly two hundered or shot them with her laser gun. She enjoyed it very much.

"Another one bites the dust, meaning he becomes rubble. Haha!" she then walked over to a stoned woman. "Should I relieve you of your bags, madame?" she asked sarcastically, before shoorting the arms off.

"So much to do, and so few time..." Demona mused while walking by a clock store. She had enjoyed to finally destroy the humans the same way they kill gargoyles. And she could do it every night from now on, until the city was empty!

"That was fun, but Xanatos is propably already waiting for me in the studio. Better give him a reciption." Aiming her laser to smash to last humans, she climbed up a wall. Xanatos had to be eliminated now, since he was one of the few with the knowledge to get out how to break the spell.

She not wanted him to destroy her playground. With this thought, she took off to the studio.

_...at the same time over Manhattan..._

"Identify the broadcast station." The man in the mask instructed the computer.

"Broadcst comes from Pack Media studios."

The man turned around, the mask of the Hunter clear to be seen. He was calm and determined. "Soon I will have you, Demona."

_...Eerie building..._

Queen Titania feared the worst. When suddenly a humans in the city had turned to stone at sunset, she knew that something was very wrong. And finally she found the cause. The broadcast of this gargess had cursed the entire city. Only thanks to the fact the she hadn't used the TV today, she had escaped the same fate.

Now she wanted to check on her daughter. Opening the door, the queen of the fey stopped, shocked. Her daughter had also turned to stone with her grandchild deeply burried in her! Checking her, she was reliefed, she and the child were still alive, this was like a gargoyles' stone sleep.

The worst thing was, that she was unable to do anything against it. It was mortal magic and therefore couldn't be broken with fey magic. To mix them would cause death and destruction.

"Fox, I will watch over you. And should anyone try to harm you while you are helpless, he will feel my wrath!" She then placed the spell that would alert her in case of trouble, before she vanished.

_...Manhattan, later..._

They had searched through Manhattan. They had also checked the labyrinth and on Elisa's parents. They were spared, because, in the Labyrinth nobody had a TV, and Pater had turned it off as soon as he had heared Demona starting to chant. He had suspicted after being told that magic was real, that something was amiss. Then they had continued to search.

They had already wanted to give up, when Elisa saw the carnage Demona had caused. Landing, she looked shocked of the massacre. Dozends of destroyed statues all over the place.

"No..." She felt sick. Demona had killed all these people, and if the city would return to normal, the bodies wouldn't be ever found. Instead the rubble would be swept away with the cleaning of the road. Forgotten forever.

"Wyvern all over again." Lex breathed, shocked as well. If they knew Demona was evil before, now she was a meance to everyone.

Standing in front of the rubble, Goliath tried not to loose his composure "Has Demona learned nothing? Every life is precious." Goliath felt his heart crumble again. After Demona hurting him personaly, now she proved her will to murder. He felt so helpless about it.

"Goliath, look at this!" Elisa called. There were three statues, excatly looking like the three fey they had met in the bank yesterday. Goliath wondered what their game was, to appear like stoned human children.

"Regardless who they are, this stinks big time to me, Goliath!" Elisa concluded, wondering herself, what these fey could want.

Broadway looked at the broken statues, fighting hard not to vomit "One of these could be one of our friends."

"Never!" Goliath shoted. "We will put an end to Demona's evil, once and for all." It was clear, Goliath was angry over his former mate, now feeling right to despise her.

"Yes, she must be stopped." Elisa pulled her hand back when the statues suddenly began to speak, their eyes glowing blue.

"But remember your own words, Goliath. _"Every life is precious."_ Take care not to become what you fight against. Vengeance begets nothing but a vicious cycle of further vengeance." the other statues continued.

Curious, Elisa touched one of them, and suddenly they crumbled to dust! "Goliath, I have the feeling, that something more is going on than we know at the moment! Since Puck I really distrust any fey! And these seem to plan something."

Suddenly Bronx howled. "Bronx has catched Demona's scent! Ye' all follow me, and we will find her!" Hudson said, then then followed the beast to a rooftop, so that they could carry him, to follow the scent in the air.

The sisters looked after them. "Everything proceeds excactly as we want it to be." said Luna.

"Yes, but I can't stand to be near the female. She really stinks of Puck's magic! It is so digusting, I nearly had to sneeze." said Seline.

"Is is disgusting, but also it makes things more interesting. Have you seen how the leader looked at her the whole time? But I get off-topic. We are needed elsewhere." Phoebe decided, and they vanished into thin air.

_...some time later in the Pack Media studios..._

The studio was a mess. The fighting in it had nearly destroyed the whole interitor, rendering it useless. Xanatos was already toying with the idea to simply demolish it after this fiasco was over.

Xanatos still was working to erase the whole recording. Demona should not be able to infect anymore people with her spell. That her fight with this Hunter had saved him and Owen from certain death was just luck, and now he had to wait until dawn, so he could speak with Owen.

At least he hoped that the humans were only stone during the night. Also he hoped that Demona or this Hunter wouldn't return. Suddenly someone entered the studio through the door. Goliath's clan had arrived.

"Ah, the cavallery is here!" he commented, a little disappointed that they have shown up so late.

"Xanatos..." Elisa growled, her eyes glowing a little red. But then she controlled herself. Xanatos was like a red cloth for her, alsways making her anger appear.

Xanatos knew why she growled at him, but he decided to play cool. "You missed the best part. Demona already left together with some Hunter."

"So you worked together with her!" Brooklyn's hate of Demona threatened to overcome him, but he held back.

"She said she would give me what I wanted, so I let her in."

Goliath walked into front of him. "You fool. You should also pay for all her innocent victims of tonight!" Goliath not liked Xanatos' cool attitude. Even if it only was a emotional mask, it annoyed him.

Xanatos was not intimidated. "You want vengeance or a solution? This is bigger than anything either of us has ever faced. We'll have to work together to stop her." Xanatos then held out his hand. " Truce?"

Goliath looked to his clan. Elisa obviously thought about ripping Xanatos to pieces, Brooklyn hated the man for working together with his nemesis Demona, Lex not liked to be in the Pack studio, Broadway had to hold back Bronx and Hudson played with his sword, as if to intimidate Xanatos. But he knew, they had no choice. And they knew it as well.

He held out his hand. "Agreed."

**_to be continued..._**


	2. Fey intervention

Episode #5-6

**_Broken Mirror_****  
City of Stone, Part II**

_by Tribun_

Demona leaned back in her seat in her human form, while watching the news about the "lost night". She had brought the television set yesterday, just to see the news of her doing. And what she saw made her forget the little trouble she had with the Hunter last night. Of course she knew who he was, but she would confront him the next time they would meet.

He was stupid to confront her. As stupid as he always was since the day he planed to betray her. Too bad that she had bonded her life to him, or she would have enjoyed dissecting him for him interfering in her affairs.

Then another report came up, explaining the disappearance of three hundred people without a trace. The reporter asked how so many people could simply disappear. Demona grinned evil. Even thinking what would happen to the remains, made her realize the perverted humor of the situation.

_They disappeared, because they were swept away when the road was cleaned, human! Ha ha. Interesting thought that they simply will throw thier remains on the junk or make concrete out of them._

All the relatives crying that their ah-so-loved ones were gone during the time of this strange collective 'blackout', made Demona look in distgust and evil happiness at the same time. While she despised the display itself, the pain of these humans was very pleasant to watch.

_And to think that I can do this now for every night..._

But then her mood turned sour. Xanatos of course would try to sabotage her plans. And his assistant would surely tell him how to break the spell. She had no illusions, he also had the means to do so. Unlike other spells, the condition how to break it was simple. Too simple for her taste.

She had to prevent him from doing so. She also bet, that Xanatos would even ask Goliath the fool for help. She hadn't encountered the clan last night, but even Goliath wasn't so stupid not to notice that all humans had turned to stone. So they would pose a problem.

But dispite her planning to sabotage their possible plan, Demona not wanted to meet Elisa again so soon. She still had not gotten over the fact, that his female, this former human, would now surely start to replace her. Maza would most likely soon fill the place at Goliath's side that was hers before. It made her angry and at the same time she tried to forget it. Meeting her would over bring up that thought. And she had no desire to get reminded of it now.

Shaking her head, Demona turned off the TV. For now she had some other things on her mind. Nightstone was still only a project, but already some hired architects were making plans for refitting a empty building for her pruposes. They said that in three weeks things were ready to start.

But more important, it was a long night, and she really needed some sleep before becoming active again next night.

_...at the same time, 23rd precinct..._

The 23rd precinct was a hive of activity. Nearly all of their work was concerned with phone calls and reports from frightened citizens concerning the 'lost night'. The whole city was in a state of confusion, and strange reports came from sources outside the city. Reports of people turning to stone.

Detective Matt Bluestone and Captain Maria Chavez were in the Captain's office, the door locked. They had a very good idea what had happened, after puzzling together the pieces.

"...and suddenly it was dawn, and I was still standing on the stairs. The clan was not there. Regardless what Demona had done, it had made us not remember the whole night. Hell, the reports of people turning to stone can be quite true." Matt Bluestone was still unsure if this had happened, but he was sure of one thing. Demona had done something to them. And he not liked it a bit. "At least we know that the clan was down here, judging by the appearance of the TV..."

"Ah yes, that." Maria Chavez. "Put that on their bill. But more important is now to locate from where the transmission came. Our best men have some data collected yesterday before the connection was cut. With some luck we will have a rough position soon. Do we know how many people have vanished?"

"A little over 300. Most of them have disappeared in a radius around a city block, but some disappeared all over the city. Interesting is, that the ones that have vanished all over the city had smashed statues of them in their homes or work places. And there was rubble that had to be cleaned away at this city block... I can think we know what happened to them."

Chavez sighed. "And no way to either get this murderess nor to actually punish her for this... Bluestone. Get out who enabled her to send that broadcast. We can't do anything to punish the one responsible with the help of the law, but at least he or she should know that we know who is guilty."

Matt was unhappy about that too. The best they could do was to charge him or her for pirating the broadcast frequencies. No much, but better than nothing. "I will see if we already have results Captain..."

Then he left the office, leaving Chavez alone with her thoughts.

_...in the Eerie building..._

"She fooled you big deal David, I hope you can clean up this mess before it becomes even worse." Fox said while standing beside the desk where Xanatos and Owen went over the plan how to break the spell.

"Trust me darling, I already know how to do it. And with the help of our dear friend Goliath and his clan, this madness will soon be over... Demona might have done a mighty spell, but the condition to break it is easy. Setting the sky alit won't be such a big problem." Xanatos absently said, while he pointed out to Owen how to alter the Steel Clan robots.

"Setting the sky alit? You want to fool me, right?" Fox knew, that even David Xanatos couldn't do that.

"Mrs. Xanatos, it only needs to look as if the sky is burning. A certain amount of special gas ignited a kilometer above the city will be enough to fulfill the condition." Owen answered.

Fox not knew a bit about magic, so she accepted this explanation. "I hope so... By the way, my mother called me on the phone this morning. She sounded pretty much concerned about me. I wish she would not do that, I'm a adult woman who not needs her mother to worry over her!"

Xanatos decided not to comment this because of two reasons. Fox's relationship with her mother was still a thorny issue, and he suspected that this outburst was mostly because of the mood swings that came with her pregnancy. Apart from her strange carvings, this was the second thing that sometimes made Xanatos wish that she hadn't become pregnant.

But at the moment they had more pressing things. They had to modificate the robots before dusk, to finally put a end to this curse.

_...near dusk... _

I should have known, that somehow he is behind all this... Matt thought while parking his car near the Eerie building. They had gotten the rogh location of the broadcast signal. And there was only one place in that region that had the ability to overtune the normal television frequencies. Pack Media studios.

After all Elisa and the clan had told him, Xanatos should have been the main suspect, having worked together with Demona on several occassions. But now there was no doubt. The billionare now would have to aswer his questions. He just hoped that he would reach him before dusk.

Walking into the entrance hall, he waved his police badge at the guard at the reciption desk. "NYPD! I must see Mr. Xanatos at once."

Intimidated, the guard pushed the button to open the elevator, and Bluestone entered the cabin, pressed the button for the top floor.

_...upstairs..._

"We are nearly finished...only two more, then all the robots are outfitted for the task." Owen reported while getting ready the work on the next robot.

"Good, it is nearly dusk, time is getting short." Xanatos then noticed that the desk guard had activated the notificator that someone came up in the elevator. Turning on the screen, the camera in the elevator cab showed a rather stressed looking Detective Matt Bluestone. "Interesting, Detective Bluestone has decided to grace us with his presence. Sadly at a very bad moment."

Then the elevator opened, revealing Matt. He noticed that Xanatos wore his battle armor, making him suspicious at once. "David Xanatos. The first time I have the 'honor' of meeting you, and already it's because you are responsible for a mess. As I see this you are already planning the next stage of your little agreement with Demona?"

"I must admit, that I'm responisble for giving Demona the opportunity to cast the spell. But I not longer have any ties with Demona, and plan to foil her plans." Xanatos answered calm.

"I bet you do..." Matt belived not a word, and tried to walk in front of Xanatos, but Owen stopped him. "Get out of my way..." Matt tried to push Owen aside, both men looked as if ready to beat the other one. But then the sun went down, and both froze in stone.

"Also a way to end a argument..." Xanatos commented before he returned to the task of modificating the last two robots.

_...twenty minutes later over Manhattan..._

The clan was on way to the Eerie building. They wished they could have called reinforcements, but Elisa's brother had made it clear that they couldn't help. Apart from the fact that they had a serious problem with even meeting Xanatos, they had already their hands full down in the Labyrinth.

They had to prevent the inhabitants seeing what was going on outside, and stop numerous scum that lived down there from exploiting the situation. Meaning that they were unable to help without creating another mess.

"I still don't like it that we have to work together with him. This man always gives me the creeps." Elisa said while seeing the Eerie building coming near.

"I don't like him either, but we won't have much of a choice." Brooklyn threw in. "Either that, or let Demona kill everyone in the city over some years. I prefer dealing with Xanatos." Brooklyn spelled her name a disease.

Goliath had to admit, dispite the truce he had forged with Xanatos, he still felt that the billionare would try to lead them into a trap. But he knew, they had to try to free the city now. He remained silent while the clan landed in the countyard and walked into the great hall. They saw Xanatos wearing his battle amor, doing some last-minute work on a robot, the other robots standing in a row. And two stoned people. One of them was Owen, and the other...

"What is he doing here!" Elisa hissed, seeing that Matt was in a struggle with Owen when the sun had set.

Xanatos played it cool. "Well, Detective Bluestone obviously got out that I'm not totally innocent concerning the current situation, and Owen has bad skills at reasoning with people. But I think we now have more important things to do."

"As much as I loathe to say this, but Xanatos is right. We need to put a end to this, as fast as possible." Goliath said, forbidding anymore discussion.

Xanatos indicated to the equipment on a table. "The spell Demona has cast will be broken 'when the sky is burning'. Together with my robots, we will dispense a special gas from these canisters a kilometer above the city. It is harmless, but if ignited will make the sky look as if on fire. I will loose my robots in the process, but that will be only a small loss. The countdown will be half a hour before ignition, so please come back in time so that you won't get caught in the blast."

Then Xanatos saw Bronx nagging on a tapestry. "Oh please no..." Luckily for him, Hudson called Bronx back, and the beast went to a far away corner of the room to sulk.

The clan wasted no words while they put on their gear a left the castle to dispense the gas together with Xanatos and the robots over the city. They would end this curse once and for all. They not saw the tapestry moved aside seven minutes later and Demona emerging into the great hall.

"Xanatos...even you don't know everything about this castle." Looking to the two statues, she grinned evil. "Destroying a friend of the clan is always a good thing. Every night a good deed!" Swinging her mace she wanted to shatter them but obviously Bronx had something against that. Growling he pushed her back.

"Good boy... Oh well, your human friends won't be destroyed... for now." Throwing her mace away, Demona hoped that was enough. Bronx retreated to guard the two statues.

Looking to the countdown on the console she typed in her own commands. _If I loose my playground, I at least will make sure that THEY will go down with it also!_ She shorted the countdown by nearly ten minutes. "Then I will just for fun destroy Xanatos, Goliath and his fools. I hope they will like my surprise, because the gas will ignite too early. Then you and your friends there will follow when my laser gun will make your life miserable!" She retreated to the tapestry "And nobody will be able to stop me!"

"Don't be so sure Demona! I bet you haven't thought about me." Demona stepped back when the man with the mask of the Hunter emerged. The last man she wanted to see now.

_...two minutes earlier..._

The gas was dispensed according to plan when Goliath and Elisa pulled up to Xanatos. "I must admit, your plan seems to work Xanatos." Goliath told him.

"Yeah, working a little too perfect. I have the feeling that things will go to hell very soon." Elisa commented.

"I never doubted that it will work. I'm more concerned about that beast and my tapestry. This Gobelin from the 12th century Bronx had nagged on." Xanatos complained annoyed about Bronx.

"We must go back to the caste!" Goliath suddenly said and turned direction.

"Goliath!" Elisa asked while following him with Xanatos behind her.

"I think Demona again duped us. That Bronx reacted that way can mean only one thing..."

"Demona is there! Oh God...Matt! She will kill them!" Elisa realized before grabbing Goliath's ankle. He knew why she did that. That way he could gain speed she couldn't gain yet and arrive at the castle faster. "I hope we get back in time to prevent a desaster!"

As fast as they could they returned to the castle and Elisa wasted no time and knocked open the gate to the hall, only to be greeted was pure destruction. Demona and MacBeth, God only know why he was here, were fighting to the death while the floor started to collapse in the middle of the room. Goliath wasted no time and grabbed the statues before they could fall through the hole.

Just then Demona noticed Elisa, and her hate exploded. While she had a constant hate for MacBeth, Elisa made her anger boil over. "YOU!" Throwing MacBeth aside she ignored the pain caused by this and lunged at her. "You won't replace me!"

Elisa was bearly able to defend herself against the sudden attack. Demona was far more experienced than her and before she knew it one of Demona's talons had ripped a wound on her forehead. Demona then kicked her into the stomach before throwing her against a wall. Goliath was unable to help because he still had to bring the two stoned humans to safety while Xanatos had stormed to the computer terminal. And MacBeth looked as if wondering what had just happened to make her ignore him.

Blood flowed over her forehead, but it now only fueled her own anger. She was determened not to let Demona beat her up.Roaring like a lion she lounged at Demona, hit her hard with her fist in the stomach before knocking her legs away. Every time she hit her, MacBeth howled in pain.

"Filthy human!" Demona screamed before backhanding her over the face, causing Elisa to bleed from her mouth. Demona then grabbed her by her hair before smacking her hand into her side, causing Elisa to go down screaming.

"Ahhh!" Elisa was now really pissed off. She rammed her claws into Demona's legs, nearly ripping them open. The sudden pain caused Demona to realease Elisa's hair from her grip.

Suddenly Demona was grabbed from behind by Goliath and thrown across the room, directly smashing with her head against a wall, resulting in her loosing conscious.

"Goliath!", Xanatos shouted from the other end of the room, "The gas will ignite too early, and she has locked the system! We must get the code from her!"

Goliath had just helped Elisa up, dispite all the blood her injuries weren't serious, and now looked over to Demona. MacBeth had grabbed a sharp candleholder, prapared to kill Demona. "No! You can't kill her! Her death won't solve anything!"

"He's right, MacBeth." Everyone in the room saw the three strange woman suddenly appearing. For everyone they looked different. Goliath and Elisa felt, that these three had played their game with them the whole time, and wanted answers, but they fell silent, when they started to talk to MacBeth.

"Duncan was afraid that your father would make you king." "Did your father's death stop you from becoming king?"

"No!" MacBeth answered with force.

"You wanted revenge for your father. Did Gillecomgain's death settle that score?"

"No." MacBeth seemed to get weaker, as if they had a sort of influence on him.

"Did your own death save your son Luoch from Canmore?"

"No." Now his voice was weak. "I'm so tired..." MacBeth was unable to hold up and simply fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Normally, I'd be fascinated by all this. But I need Demona to talk to get out the code to prevent this desaster." Xanatos said calm, but this was only a mask. In reality he was quite confused who these three woman are who had neutralized MacBeth.

The sisters simply seemed to think for a second before they awakened Demona. She was confused when they stood around her. "You must tell them the code."

"I will have vengeance for the betrayal of my clan, vengeance for my pain." Demona seemed not willing to give in.

"But who betrayed your clan?" "And who caused this pain?"

"The Vikings destroyed my clan." She said, strangely showing no emotion, as if under a spell.

"Who betrayed the castle to the Vikings?"

"The Hunter hunted us down." She change the topic.

"Who created the Hunter?"

"Canmore destroyed the last of us." She again changed the topic.

"Who betrayed MacBeth to Canmore?"

"Your thirst for vengeance has only created more sorrow." Goliath not excactly knew what they talked about, but he had enough information to puzzle together a rough picture of what Demona had done. "End this now before it is too late, and tell us the code."

"The access code is... 'alone'." Goliath had a hard time not to stare when he saw Demona cry for the first time ever. Regardless under which spell she was, it not allowed her to flee into her anger.

Xanatos wasted no time and typed in the code. "Desaster prevented. I will re-program the original countdown."

Just then Demona seemed to get out of the spell, returning to her usual self. "You tricked me! You had me under a spell! None of this was my fault. It was the humans, always the humans!"

"OH, SHUT UP DEMONA!" Elisa screamed as loud as she could, her eyes glowing blood red.

This display of anger intimidated her quite a bit when Elisa moved in front of her, continuing her tirade. "You always need to move the guilt to some else right? You are unable to admit that you mainly caused the whole mess yourself! You need to blame someone else, because you have a weak character. You disgust me Demona. I have once and for all enough of your self-pity and your self-righteous behaviour. If you can't admit your own guilt, you don't deserve someone else's pity."

Demona seemed to get over her shock and wanted to attack, but the sisters simply held her. "You are tired...sleep." Demona fell unconscious.

"Regardless who you three are, we know that you are fey and no schoolgirls, so drop the disguise. We finally want to know what you want." Goliath said with force while trying to get over the fact that Elisa's anger had nearly gotten the better of her. He had never seen her this way.

The Weird Sisters felt that a disguise was now obsolete, and returned to their natural form, looking to the two gargoyles. "Our plans are of no concern to you." "But know that we won't tolerate you to interfere." "For this will awaken our hostility to you."

"Do you threaten us?" Elisa asked while looking at them with suspiction. She not like these three fey. While Puck was only annoying, these three carried the air of arrogance.

The Sisters looked at her as if seeing sumething ugly. "We fell the touch of the Puck's magic on you, creature. It feels...disgusting" "The Puck always does what against nature is. Creating perversions." "You should ask yourself, are you now more human or more beast? For you seem to lack control."

Elisa stepped back, shocked at their bold words. All came now back to her, how she had lost control while fighting Demona and her outburst after that.

The Sisters ignored her and moved aroud Demona and MacBeth. "Our plans for these two are not done yet." "They will play a vital role." "And things now get into motion." In blinding light they vanished.

_Interesting... very interesting. It seems as if the Weird Sisters are constantly breaking the law._

When the spell had alerted her that there was danger in the castle, she had feared that her daughter was in mortal danger, but when she had arrived, she was relived to see that she was safe. But gotten curious, she wanted to know what was going on in the home of her son-in-law. So Titania had located the exact point and spied what was going on.

And it was very interesting. That the Weird Sisters were not guarding the water gate to Avalon and instead were messing around with the lives of these two mortals was a gross violation of Oberon's law.

It was something she would remember until the time was right to reveal this. These three were favourites of Oberon, and it would be not easy to reaveal their deeds in the mortal world. But she had never really liked them, only tolerated them. Yes, witholding this for the right time was the best course of action.

Queen Titania then teleported away. She had other things to do now.

_...ten minutes later..._

The ignited gas looked as if the sky was burning bright. The clan watched the spectacle from the parapets. And the curse was broken and all humans returned to their natural state.

"Wah...?" Matt suddenly noticed that there was a really big hole in the floor where he was a second ago. All the robots were gone and the clan waited at the door to the countyard. "Eh...guys? Looks like I missed something?"

"We will explain everything to you later. Just now we jsut want to get out of here. We don't like to be here." Lex simply said before leaving. The others followed him with exception of Goliath who wanter to say something more.

"The danger is over and the spell that was put on this city broken. As Lexington has said, we will give you the details later. I assume you wish to leave the castle on your own?"

"Oh please, no need to carry me. I have my car parked down there. I'm really curios what had happened. See you in your home." Matt then left, not wanting to stay there any longer.

"Goliath, we made a good team. You know, all this time I've wondered why I let you creatures live. Now I know. You come in handy, now and then." Xanatos was again his old self, always seeming to be above things.

Goliath was a little annoyed, but decided not to bother. "As do you, occasionally." Then he left without another word. He was at the moment more concerned about Elisa. The Sister's words had somehow made quite a impact on her. And she seemed to start to show the first signs of a depression.

Xanatos on the other hand now only wated to go to Fox and relax for the rest of the night. "Owen...please call for tomorrow the repair crew. When I get up I want this hole and the other damage gone."

"As you wish Mr. Xanatos..." Owen said while trying to guess what had happened while he was stone. Well, he would ask his employer next morning. Then he would get a clearer picture.

**_The End_**

**_Next installment:  
"When it comes crashing down"_**


End file.
